Hernandez is suspect in 2012 murders

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BOSTON – Former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez is being investigated in connection with a 2012 double murder in Boston, according to multiple news outlets.

The Boston Globe, Boston Herald and Fox 25 in Boston reported that officials said investigators now believe that Odin L. Lloyd, the man Hernandez is charged with killing in a North Attleboro, Mass., industrial park June 17, may have had information linking Hernandez to the double slaying.

Lloyd, 27, a semi-pro football player from Dorchester, Mass., was dating the sister of Hernandez’s fiancee.

Hernandez, 23, who was fired by the Patriots shortly after his arrest, appeared Thursday at a bail review hearing but was again denied bail after prosecutors said he was captured on video walking into his house with what they believe was the murder weapon.

The prosecutor also said he told his girlfriend not to talk to police about the case, although defense attorney James Sultan pointed out that he has not been charged with obstructing the investigation.

Lloyd was shot five times, including twice in the chest while he was on the ground, the prosecutor said. The shell casings were found and all matched one gun. The gun, however, has not been found.

A dejected Hernandez was escorted out by burly guards, as his fiancee broke down in tears.

Prosecutor William McCauley told the judge that police also searched a Franklin condominium that Hernandez is renting, and a variety of ammunition was found in that condominium.

Authorities said they also searched a Hummer registered to Hernandez at that condominium’s address, and they found a clip for a .45 caliber firearm.

McCauley said Fernandez was a flight risk, and that there’s proof he took steps to destroy evidence.

“The case against him is strong, and he would be looking at a chance of life in prison without parole,” he said.

Meanwhile, investigators are probing a possible connection between Hernandez and a double murder in Boston last summer and will be back at the jailed player’s North Attleboro home today.

Police told Boston media that Hernandez is being eyed in a double-murder July 15 of last year in the South End, where two men were gunned down. Upon arrival, police reported finding two men dead at the scene – Daniel Jorge Correia de Abreau, 29, and Safiro Teixeira Furtado, 28, both of Dorchester.

A cousin of Furtado said investigators have not talked to the family about any possible link to Hernandez.

A jogger found Lloyd’s body in a remote area of an industrial park about a mile from Hernandez’s home in North Attleborough 10 days ago.Prosecutors said Hernandez orchestrated the killing because Lloyd talked to the wrong people at a nightclub.

In laying out more of the government’s case Thursday, McCauley said prosecutors believe that the murder weapon was a .45-caliber Glock and that a gun Hernandez is seen holding on his home surveillance video, a weapon they haven’t found, appears to be a Glock.

Meanwhile, authorities in Connecticut also made an arrest in connection with Lloyd’s slaying. New Britain State’s Attorney Brian Preleski said Thursday that investigators arrested Carlos Ortiz, 25, in Hernandez’s hometown, Bristol, Conn., as part of the murder probe. Authorities charged Ortiz as a fugitive from justice, and he agreed to be transferred to Massachusetts.

Prosecutors have said that on June 16 Hernandez and two unidentified friends picked up Lloyd from his Boston home in a rented silver Nissan Maxima, took him to a remote area of an industrial park and shot him five times.

Lloyd, in the minutes before his death, sent a series of texts to his sister, who had seen him get into the car.